Travelling Photographer

Today is our last day in Yellowstone and we spent the day exploring the northwest section of the park. Most of our time was spent walking the boardwalks of the upper and lower terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs. A little disappointing in that there was much less water flowing through the springs than in our previous visits which made the area look a little barren and silted.

Completing our day we drove from Mammoth Hot Springs to the Tower -Roosevelt area and along the way we rode the unpaved Blacktail Plateau Drive (surprisingly our Camry handled it well). Along the way we viewed Undine Falls and hiked to Wraith Falls.

We started the day driving the Firehole Canyon getting great views of the several cascades.

Started today’s hikes at the Fairy Falls Trail, a 3.6 mile hike to the 197 foot falls. For me the best part of the hike was an elevated view of the Grand Prismatic Spring. If you have been following my adventures for a while you might remember me gushing about the view. It was an off trail bushwhacking to get up high enough to see over the trees and on to the spring. Not any more – the park service has added a side trail to get to my spot. The spring is still spectacular.

Continuing along the trail trough pine forest and over some small boulders to get to the falls.

After the hike back to our car we headed to Biscuit Basin for our final hike of the day — Mystic Falls. This so called easy hike was so if you just hiked to the falls and back. We decided to do the falls loop trail which is 4 miles — our first mistake was to take the right fork which rises 700 feet in a half mile with many switchbacks to an overlook of the firehole river and in the distance Upper Geyser Basin. The downhill return to the falls and trailhead was much easier.

Closing out the hike we followed the basin boardwalk through several geysers.

Heavy hiking day today — early morning start on the Brink of Lower Falls trail.

The Brink of Lower Falls Trail switchbacks steeply down a mostly forested section of the Grand Canyon to an observation platform perched at the top of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. Here the mighty river thunderously plunges 308 feet into the heart of the canyon and hikers are afforded spectacular views down river into the vast, colorful canyon. The trail drops more than 300 feet in 0.4 miles.

South Rim Trail – the Trail runs from Chittenden Bridge to Point Sublime 3.8 miles each way. The trail provides views of the Yellowstone river and it Grand Canyon, Lower and Upper Falls and continuing vista all along the way. One side hike we were considering was Uncle Tom’s Trail which maybe the most unusual hike in the park ( I did it ten years ago – what a workout) It’s not really a trail but a series of mesh steps to a Lower Falls viewpoint a mere 328 steps to the bottom. On second thought I was glad that it was closed.

Today we traverse several landscapes of Yellowstone – geysers, natural bridge and the beginnings of our visit to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest and most changeable thermal area in Yellowstone. We explored the basin taking two loop trails totaling about 2 1/4 miles passing the world’s tallest active geyser, colorful hot springs, and microscopic life in one of the most extreme environments on earth.

Rainbow Colors, hissing steam, and pungent odors combine to create an experience unique in Yellowstone. Porcelain Basin is open terrain with hundreds of densely packed geothermal features; in contrast, Back Basin is forested and its features are more scattered and isolated. Steamboat Geyser, is the world’s tallest active geyser. Its major eruptions shoot water more than 300 feet – not today.

Natural Bridge trail – Yellowstone Natural Bridge is a natural arch. The arch is at an elevation of 7,983 feet and can be reached by hiking a little more than a mile and a half. The arch is 51 feet tall and was created as water eroded through the surrounding ryholite rock. Not a challenge to climb for a 14 year old.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River begins at Upper Falls, cutting a 20-mile long, 1,000-foot deep gash across the park. We walked right up to the edge of the dramatic falls on Brink of the Upper Falls Trail and stare down the thundering 109-foot waterfall. A great view and along with it a rainbow.

North Rim Trail – You can get numerous memorable views of the canyon by hiking along North Rim Trail, which stretches 3.8 miles over a paved and unpaved path crossing the northwest wall of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Some sections of North Rim Trail parallel North Rim Drive, a road that allows visitors to drive right up to some of the north rim’s exceptional overlooks. Away from the road, North Rim Trail crosses pristine pine forests perched atop precarious canyon walls. The trail connects several named and noteworthy viewpoints while passing unnamed views that stop you in your tracks – for photos of course. We hike out and back for about 6 miles then drove to Inspiration Point for our final stop before heading back to West Yellowstone for the night.

Today we moved on to Yellowstone NP with early morning stops at Moose Falls and Lewis Falls (short hikes to get us going). Then on to our first geysers at West Thumb Geyser Basin – West Thumb Geyser Basin Trail is a 1-mile loop trail located on Yellowstone Lake. West Thumb Geyser Basin is one of the smallest geyser basins in Yellowstone yet its location along the shore of Yellowstone Lake ranks it as the most scenic. West Thumb derived its name from the thumb-like projection of Yellowstone Lake. It was also known as Hot Spring Camp. West Thumb has less geyser activity than other basins, but West Thumb, for its size, has it all – hot springs, pools, mud pots, fumaroles and lake shore geysers.

We then headed to the southwest section of the park to “Old Faithful” and the Upper Geyser Basin. Old Faithful can vary in height from 100-180 feet with an average near 130-140 feet. Eruptions normally last between 1.5 to 5 minutes. We arrived with an estimated 20 minutes till the next eruption, so we hiked around the observation loop getting interesting views of the old faithful geyser and the surrounding trail options to view the entire basin. We weren’t disappointed with the eruption, maybe 120 ft and about 4 minutes. We decided to do the full basin loop including Geyser Hill (about 5 miles). The basin has about 130 named geysers but a total of over 500.

Completing our day we drove to see the Lower Geyser Basin, walked the Fountain Paint Pots trail, viewed Gibbons Falls, walked the Artist Paint Pot trail – very full day – Finally the hour drive to West Yellowstone and our hotel and dinner.